Wikis in Knowledge Management Presentation

This is the presentation I gave at the Dublin Institute of Technology on 08/11/09. There were 2 masters classes in attendance (Knowledge Management & IT).

Wikis In Knowledge Management Enabling Effective Collaboration

View more presentations from mooneycol.

Enterprise 2.0 Starting Points

I have been discussing the introduction of web 2.0 tools into a global organisation with a contact recently and a few familiar points arose relating to the introduction of these tools / way of working. So to help address them, I have broken these points down into some headings:

Understanding - There is no point in implementing web 2.0 tools for the sake of it. You must understand both your target audience internally and how these tools can improve how you do what you do. Here you must look at how collaboration is different in the new way of working compared to how it is currently being achieved. From basic principles it is about connecting people through their knowledge and expertise by providing the environment (real & virtual) which encourages them to share information as part of their daily operation. This famous "Meet Charlie" deck gives a nice introduction to the potential of what can be done:

Meet Charlie - what is Enterprise2.0?

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: 2.0 enterprise)

Support / Sponsorship - Once you fully understand what web 2.0 is about ("I get it!"), you now need to get your organisation on board. There are 2 elements to this:

1. Senior Management - The initiative needs to be supported top-down by senior management in the organisation (across all divisions / geographies). This is required from the beginning, and will work in a lead-by-example method e.g. Executive Blogs. The sales pitch to this group needs to echo their needs from existing programmes. Avoiding redundant effort, avoiding repeated mistakes, taking advantage of existing expertise, making individuals more effective, making teams more effective.
   
2. Grass Roots - The initiative needs to be driven laterally by communities of practice at grass roots level. Employees need to be encouraged to participate and rewarded for contributing. The model is suited to achieving a critical mass of users to ensure trust and sustained engagement for ongoing success.
   

Education - Web 2.0 is new to many, so it is important to convert these people by demonstrating a clear benefit to them from using the tools. Removing the technical jargon for business users can help to speed their introduction to web 2.0. I am a big fan of the CommonCraft show which has taught us to focus on plain english explanations of technical tools / concepts for business users. An example of how they simplify these concepts is RSS in plain english:



Starting Points - I believe that the best starting points for the introduction of web 2.0 tools are those which have high visibility, are cross divisional / geographically dispersed and can have a quick turn-around for early results. Operations & Technology is always a good area for testing the waters in this domain. The tasks and roles in O&T divisions are suited to adopting tools like instant messaging, wikis for documenting practices / ideas, RSS feeds for monitoring systems etc. Prove the value here and the other areas of your organisation will follow.

Growth - You need champions and evangelists to drive adoption and early growth for a successful beginning for your web 2.0 initiative. It is so important to fuel the flame of enthusiasm early on by demonstrating functionality, mentoring and supporting your user community. I had posted in the past about the characteristics of a wiki champion, but they are applicable to all web 2.0 adoption really:

• Be a Clear Communicator
• Be a Coach
• Be Patient
• Be Enthusiastic
• Be Engaging
• Have Fun!
  

Measurement - This is a real grey area, as the metrics could be different for each organisation depending on the goals of your initiative. There are however some emerging examples of what organisations are measuring when it comes to examining trends and ROI for web 2.0 programmes. Things like # of unique users, # of unique contributions etc. This slide deck shows some of the metrics that Accenture use for their knowledge management initiatives:

Measuring the impact of knowledge management

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: knowledge management roi)

This is by no means an extensive coverage of this topic, however I would encourage those interested in Web 2.0 or enterprise 2.0 to use the tools online to discover more e.g. YouTube, SlideShare, RSS Readers / Blogs, LinkedIn etc.

COP - Dublin Wiki Wednesday

As mentioned in my previous post, I presented a case study of my dissertation project to the MSc in Knowledge Managment course last Saturday at the Dublin institute of Technology. During this presentation, it emerged that a number of the current class are also working on enterprise wiki deployments in their organisations.

As we discussed the many aspects of introducing "the wiki way" into an organisation, I realised that there were lots of things that we could share with each other as this young technology starts to take hold. I suggested that we could investigate the creation of a wiki community of practice to provide a forum for idea sharing and best practice to be accessible to those around Dublin.

So, this week we are in the early stages of working out how best to approach this initiative. I am quite excited about the prospect, as I have read about other "Wiki Wednesday" groups in places like Toronto and London. I hope that we can engage an enthusiastic group of practitioners to participate towards making it a success.

Lots more on this to come!

KM Dissertation Advice

I met with a friend and former KM classmate of mine, Colman McMahon, today in preparation for a presentation we will be giving to the current students of the MSc in Knowledge Management at the Dublin Institute of Technology. We will be sharing our experience of tackling a dissertation in KM and also an open Q&A about our views on the current state of KM.

It was interesting to compare thoughts on where we see the future of KM, particularly on the technology and tooling side. We both had looked at wiki-use during our research and agreed that they are certainly useful in demonstrating the human elements of KM (capture, sharing, organising of knowledge etc). We also spoke about Sharepoint and Lotus Connections - we both agreed that there is huge potential in relation to the power of these environments to provide a solid infrastructure for KM and Enterprise 2.0 features going forward.

In terms of what advice we would pass on to the current class, we have yet to conclude on this. My own thoughts include:

• KM is more than just a technology discipline, in fact it encompasses many aspects of a working organisation. This is an important lesson to learn, as many people have fallen at this first hurdle of understanding what KM is and how it will provide value and enable internal growth for your organisation.
• The role of HR in KM is very important. "Learning & Development" has out-grown its welcome, and the days of simply attending courses and returning to the desk are over. The next generation of "Learning & Development" is continuous learning & development - KM! The knowledge workers of Gen X/Y want to search and discover knowledge instantly (instead of attending a 3-day course to do so).
• The tie between Web 2.0 and KM is a growing discipline. However, it is important to remember and focus-on the core KM principles. Don't deploy a wiki or blog because it's cool - deploy them for what they can add to your organisation, and be clear on what you are using them for.

Once we narrow down our thoughts on KM research and our experiences in the next few weeks, I will share them here.

Presenting at Connectr #4 in Dublin

I will be presenting a "15 minutes of Fame" session at the ILUG Connectr #4 event at the IBM campus in Dublin on June 3rd. My slot is called "Implementing KM - Success Factors" which is closely linked to my previous post on the subject when finishing my dissertation.

Web 2.0 Conceptual Model by Ravi Govil

A great post by Ravi Govil called Web 2.0 - Conceptual Model. It communicates the enterprise view of how web 2.0 can support your collaboration needs and provides clarity of where these new behaviours include uses, communities and your enterprise content. Below is the conceptual diagram he presents for Web 2.0 principles:

1. Web as a Platform.


2. Service Agnostic of the Device.


3. Data is the Competitive Advantage.


4. Harnessing Collective Intelligence.


5. New Web Business Model.

Promoting Your Enterprise Wiki Portal - Business Card Idea

I have been thinking of ways to promote our enterprise wiki, particularly to new groups who have not been using wiki systems before. One thing I have been trying to do is to sell the concept that the wiki portal can act as a central knowledge repository that we can all benefit from. We called it 'OnePlace', to symbolise this idea "...find all your answers in One Place!".

Then, in a slide show I was putting together, it came to me that if I want to promote this as a great source of knowledge within the organisation, why not promote it using a business card. Now if teams say "where will we find information about xxxx", they can check OnePlace!

I have yet to 'test' this idea, but I think I will include it in any presentations I give internally as my closing slide......"Now the important contact you need is OnePlace"

Internal Blogging at BT

Another great post by Richard Dennison called Blogging Inside BT in which he describes how "BT management is prepared to allow its employees to express themselves and their opinions on ‘unregulated’, self-publishing platforms". It is a great read and another example of how to link the use of Web 2.0 tools to providing value internally behind the firewall.

I also like a response he has added to a comment on the post, relating to how blogs can have a longer life span than traditional discussion forums as "the owner feels responsible for keeping it going because it is part of their personal brand." I like this enterprise blogging idea, as it allows all employees to become experts in their own area, and makes individual knowledge more available to the wider internal community.

I have linked to Richard before, relating to his post on Web 2.0 adoption at BT. It seems that they have a clear vision of what they can achieve by empowering their employees with information and knowledge resources.

Anyone interested in real examples of how to formulate Web 2.0 strategy and learn from the BT examples should subscribe to Richard's blog Inside Out.

Implementing KM - Success Factors

I gave a presentation tonight at the Dublin Institute of Technology based on my dissertation. In it I was demonstrating the high level findings of the research and some of the learning points and experiences of piloting an enterprise wiki as a knowledge management enabler.

First off was the idea that knowledge management is much more about people, their knowledge and embedding a knowledge sharing culture than any particular technology. IT will inevitably be part of any large KM initiative, but is only the enabler of the end goal. It is important to tie the goals of the KM program to the objectives of the organisation in which it is positioned. This will help senior management to sell and promote it.

I have tried to promote the benefits of KM as part of the initiative. I have found it is important to communicate these in a language which makes sense to all stakeholders, without too much jargon. The first 3 are recommended by Stan Garfield. They were:

• Avoiding redundant effort.
• Avoiding repeated mistakes.
• Taking advantage of existing expertise in the organisation.
• Making individuals more effective.
• Making teams more effective.

Given the people focus of my research, collaboration and knowledge flows became important. If we examine the knowledge networks which exist in an organisation, we can better understand how knowledge flows throughout it. Large Organisations are made up of many networks, with key players who act as information brokers, boundary spanners, central connectors, and peripheral specialists. These flows can often create knowledge bottlenecks of bureaucracy, which can prevent free knowledge sharing.

Next it was onto Web 2.0, and how the elements and behaviours of web 2.0 applications and communities are becoming increasingly popular in knowledge management. For example, a Forrester paper out last week reported that 85% of companies using Wikis were using them as a knowledge management tool. The match between tools such as wikis to the knowledge cycle (find, organise, share, use/reuse) and the enabling features (Search Link Author Tag Extend Signal) of web 2.0 is one which has not gone unoticed. My approach was simple:

• Engage Senior Management to back the initiative.
• Secure exclusive, high profile use-cases for the portal.
• Brand the portal to promote its use.
• Meet with prospective teams and user groups to gauge reaction.
• Drive wiki adoption by becoming a ‘Wiki Champion’.

The initiative was supported top-down by senior management, driven bottom-up from grassroots, and promoted laterally through communities of practices. This ensures sustained engagement across a wide range of groups within the organisation.

3 high level conclusions:

1. Knowledge management is more about people and the processes which enable knowledge management than specific technologies.


2. Simplicity is important, providing knowledge workers with the tools to quickly capture, organise, share and reuse knowledge which is important to their work.


3. Wiki’s provide users with the collaborative environment required for successful knowledge management.

6 Characteristics of a Wiki Champion

This is a cross posting of a piece I wrote for Stewart Mader who I have linked to many times here at Extacit. Based on my own experience, I have jotted down some of the characteristics that a Wiki champion may need to succeed:

Knowing the benefits that Wiki use can bring to your organisation is the easy bit! Driving adoption and selling that message is what will make you a Wiki champion.

A Wiki champion is important –

“a passionate, enthusiastic champion is essential to the success of wiki because s/he will be able to generate interest, give the appropriate amount of training for each person at the right time, monitor growth of the tool and fix problems that could derail adoption.” Source WikiPatterns

There are no set rules or processes to follow, only some emerging guidelines and best practices (known as patterns), so it is up to you to make it succeed. There is no better place to start than the 21 days of Wiki Adoption series here at Grow Your Wiki.

Like any new technology, there will be some resistance to Wiki adoption in your organisation. This can come from many sources, not just those who are not familiar with Web 2.0 or Social Computing. You must be clear about what you are trying to achieve with your Wiki deployment. So here are some of the characteristics you may need:

1. Be a Clear Communicator: Wiki and the ‘Wiki-Way’ of working will be new to many people in your organisation. It is important to keep things simple when selling the idea. I have found that gaining senior management support early for your project is important. Then you can let them sell the idea for you.
2. Be A Coach: Commonly known as ‘Wiki-Gardening’, you will need to coach some of the early users so that they can make best use of their Wiki from the beginning. They in-turn will pass this on to others, but a quick win is important to securing sustained engagement from your user community.
3. Be Patient: Be patient with your early adopters, allow them to sculpt their Wiki in their way. They will know what works best for the information they work with and the team members they deal with. Be ready to help when they need it.
4. Be Enthusiastic: People will react to your enthusiasm and knowledge of the ‘Wiki-Way’. Encourage others to try new things or to look at how they currently collaborate and show them how this could work in the ‘Wiki-Way’.
5. Be Engaging: As people begin to find their way with Wiki use, be available to discuss or help with continued use. Show them examples from other Wiki’s internally, so they can see what others are doing and adopt some of those practices themselves.
6. Have Fun!: This is one of the most important characteristics. Wiki adoption will be different in each organisation. Grassroots & organic seems to be an emerging successful trend, so there will be an element of exploration and innovation involved. Enjoy this period, communicate and engage with your user community and you will reap the rewards.

There may be many other challenges you could face, but if you get the formula correct for your organisation, then it is a great experience. You might even have people call you ‘The Wiki Guy’! Overall, a collaborative environment, where knowledge sharing and productivity has improved is a very welcome outcome of the Wiki adventure.

Wiki as a Knowledge Management Tool

My research has been focused on the collaboration and knowledge sharing elements of knowledge management in the enterprise. One of the key parts of this is to map what the enterprise wiki pilot is achieving against the basic knowledge cycle I started with when I began my first MSc (I have just started my second!).

So, looking at the 4 elements of the KM cycle above:

Find
Wiki use in the enterprise allows you to combine the knowledge of many teams into one larger, community knowledge base. This gives the users a "place" or "home" for their contributions where they know that they can be easily used by others.

Organise
Wiki spaces in products like Confluence & Socialtext are hierarchicaly structured in the parent-child page relationship which makes them easy to understand and to administer. Additional features such as tagging, breadcrumb navigation and powerful contextual search makes information retrieval much better than email + file shares. Some early responses with our wiki pilot have indicated that the benefits of having a web-based document sharing tool which can index-search attachments to provide a more powerful information retreival service is a very welcome addition to their job roles.

Share
Here is where the "Wiki Way" shines. There have been many groupware products in the past which have facilitated centralised, web-based document management, but wiki's provide this with the important collaboration layer that web 2.0 enables on top. They are a much more intuitive environment to interact with and will be around for a long time, as your n-generation graduate intake will already be trained in these environments from their own social interactions on the web!

Use & Reuse
As is mentioned on Stan Garfield's Weekly Knowledge Management Blog this week - 3 major benfitis of KM are avioding redundant effort, avioding repeated mistakes and taking advantage of existing knowledge and expertise within your organisation. A collaborative working environment supported by wiki use can help deliver on some of these benefits.

It is easy to forget the base principles which are enabled by web 2.0 tools when put to use in a business environment. We must be able to recognise the simple goals which culture and technology in the past have prohibited. A changing world with more and more distributed and virtual teams require organisations to provide its knowledge workers with tools which facilitate distributed and virtual collaboration.

21 Days of Wiki Adoption by Stewart Mader

Keep a close watch on Stewart Maders 21 days of Wiki Adoption. This set of 21 short videos will help you to understand the concept of Wiki use in your organisation.

Stewart is the author of 2 books, Wikipatterns and Using Wiki in Education. I have followed his blog on wiki patterns for some time now, and he is great at explaining the wiki concept in "plain english" just like the guys at CommonCraft.

The key thing about this series of videos is the simplicity and clarity of the examples that Stewart delivers. I frequently get asked in my organisation - "What is a wiki?" (this normally comes about 15 mins into my demo of our enterprise wiki!).

But that is ok for me, as if it takes them 15 mins to query the technology, then maybe the underlying benefits of collaboration, knowledge sharing and intuitive information retrieval are more prominent. The best bit is when we get to the cost!

So follow Stewart's videos and learn! As Luis Suarez said:

I bet, I know, I am sure of it, that after watching through the entire show with the different episodes, you would be more than ready to start deploying those wikis within your organisation.

Social Collaboration on the Intranet at BT

Richard Dennison has posted a great case study about Web 2.0 adoption at BT on his blog called Inside Out. It is great to see such transparency and openness in this case, as often this type of information is considered to be the 'competitive advantage' every organisation craves.

However, in the world of social computing, collaboration and knowledge management - things are different! By sharing the experiences of the successes and failures, practitioners can help develop this emerging domain by quickly learning the best practices, do's and don'ts and the challenges they may face.

More and more we are seeing a culture of sharing and transparency amongst those who realise the benefits of the community-culture that social computing can bring to your organisation. Richard notes the challenges and cultural hurdles which understandably face the 'wiki champions' and the 'internal bloggers' when they present their ideas to the security departments and policy makers.

From my own experience, I think that senior management support at an early stage is critical. This was a key element to the success at BT also, as Richard mentions that it was their CEO who publicly announced his support for a more liberal approach.

Social Communication in the Enterprise

Creating a knowledge sharing culture in the enterprise is a difficult task. There are many benefits to be gained from an environment where employees can freely exchange knowledge and expertise, which otherwise may be lost when they leave the organisation or switch roles within it. This element is known as knowledge retention.

The following table shows the scenarios in relation to the tools or methods used for capturing and sharing knowledge in the enterprise. The green cell (social - tacit) is the one which is most coveted and is probably most difficult to establish as part of the organisational culture.

This social - tacit communication is what I am exploring in my dissertation. I want to investigate whether the use of an enterprise wiki platform will result in employees participating in a community environment where they can contribute and search for content which previously they would have to either request it or know where to find it in the unorganised shared folders.

I would classify each of the cells as follows:

Individual-Explicit: The creation of knowledge by individuals in documents or in eMails as part of their day-to-day tasks. This type of knowledge is often not shared or made available to others for re-use. In this context, it is often "lost" to the organisation. An example of this is a "How-To" document created by an expert on how they do their job and often stored on their own PC or printed in the form of a document.

Individual-Tacit: From the definition of tacit knowledge..."is knowledge that people carry in their minds and is, therefore, difficult to access. Often, people are not aware of the knowledge they possess or how it can be valuable to others. Tacit knowledge is considered more valuable because it provides context for people, places, ideas, and experiences". Freeing this knowledge can lead to improved collaboration and communication in the enterprise.

Social-Explicit: Meetings, Workshops, Internal Communications (Magazines etc.) and Intranet Content. This type of knowledge is created by many and requires some collaboration during it's creation or compilation. Organisations have been using Intranets for years now to allow many to access explicit information in relation to procedures, organisational structure, FAQ's etc.

Social-Tacit: A culture of knowledge sharing and open communication is required for social - tacit interactions to freely occur. The use of discussion forums and FAQ/best practice intranet pages have been tried for this type of communication in the past. The use of Wiki's in the enterprise is an emerging trend in this area, which tries to build on the success of wikipedia as a mass-collaboration and participative platform and bring this behind the firewall to solve real business problems. There are also many elements of social-computing which have been demonstrated by YouTube, FaceBook, Flickr and many others which can bring an element of personalisation to these portals.

The creation of communities of practice or adapting current communications methods to enable employees to participate in a wiki portal may help them to contribute to the greater organisational knowledge, however, it must be noted that the creation of documents and management of information strategies must be an important part of any collaboration strategy.

Selling Knowledge Management - Language is Key

I haven't had much time to post lately, my dissertation is at a very busy stage. One thing that I thought would be useful to share is my experience of turning an idea into reality. I am looking to pilot a wiki-based portal in my organisation to enable better collaboration for COP's (Communities of Practice), Special Interest Groups, Communications Groups etc.

I have found that the language used to describe my project has been very important. People don't readily know what is meant by 'Knowledge Management' and sometimes they can get a little scared when you try to sell an idea as KM. This is also true for web2.0, as is my experience with the word 'wiki'.

Now, almost everyone I have spoken to about the project has heard of wikipedia, but I am trying to demonstrate the benefits of wiki use in a controlled environment behind the firewall, So I have tried not to mention wikipedia where possible. I am enjoying people's reaction and their questions as they try to understand the concept.

I gave the idea a 'brand', so that when the people I meet talk to each other, they will spread the idea by using its' name. I called the portal 'OnePlace' - To signify that all of the work is now in one place, where the participants of a group can easily find their information (documents, meetings agendas, presentations), and that their COP now has a 'Place' (below) rather than simply comprising of a thread of emails and a monthly physical meeting.

So what about the language? I have tried to use words like re-use, reduce re-work, easily find what you are looking for, keep up to date .....to describe the use of a collaborative wiki space when working as part of a COP.

So where has this got me? A pilot is now being implemented, and we will see how the users react. It will be interesting to see how the baby boomers react to using wiki instead of depending on the office suite. I am confident though that even if they struggle initially with WYSIWYG editing, they will experience/observe enough benefits over the traditional email & attachment way of running a COP within an organisation (below).

Please let me know of your experiences with introducing wiki to your organisation?

Enterprise 2.0 and Generation Y - What's the right time to adopt?

I have been reading some papers recently about the differences between the Baby Boomer Generation and Generation Y. Specifically, I am interested in how individuals from both generations will react to the social computing tools when they are eventually adopted behind the firewall in large organisations.

Generation Y kids (those born between 1985 - 1995) are now coming into the workforce. I was born in 1984, so I actually feel a bit left out when I read about all of the excitement around this next bunch!

These individuals (which is a strange way to describe the most connected generation there has ever been) bring with them a whole new genre of communicating. They were the first to experience internet use in their schools, they have come through college with Google, Facebook, YouTube and all of the other social networking sites over the last 10 years.

If I focus a little on their most recent experience - College, here they have used the power of google and the web to teach themselves how to find information. They have used social networking sites to find, rate, share and view content such as music, videos, stories and slideshows with each other.

Now Imagine yourself as one of these guys (e.g. You are 21, and starting in a large MNC):

• You arrive in an environment where there are no efficient ways for finding the information you want, now when you don't know something about a specific task in your company - you can't just google it!
• You have no way of finding others who may know because the corporate directory lists only name, department, email and phone details - there are no full profiles (Knowledge Maps).
• To top it all off, you can't access YouTube, Facebook, SlideShare, Flickr etc because they are all banned in your organisation.

I could add more to this list but my basic point is that these young creative individuals will be like fish out of water when they arrive at their desks on day 1! What I am interested in is when is the right time to introduce Enterprise 2.0 into your organisation.

In the beginning the Baby Boomer senior management will not understand the user urge for wiki's, blogs, and collaborative tools such as tagging and bookmarking, however, at the same time the generation Y knowledge workers will get frustrated with the lack of structure and transparency in the enterprise information environment they will be working in.

IT Consumerisation - The user has the power!

I have been reading lots of papers recently about web2.0 adoption in large enterprises. It seems that the common occurrence is a small grassroots seed that grows with popularity into a larger more widely used solution.

I am referring to the IT consumerization which Gartner says will be "the most significant trend affecting IT in the next 10 years". While looking at my own organisation for my dissertation, I have come across multiple small-scale wiki implementations scattered among different departments.

On their own, each wiki was very powerful and an excellent improvement on the conventional tools for team collaboration in the 90's (email + MS Office), but in terms of consistency, cross-reference and compatibility they are actually creating the same siloed effect we started with. In speaking to one of the "Wiki-Champions", I also discovered that usage was not very high amongst the team members because the wiki was seen as a "gimic" i.e. There was no exclusive content on it which required them to use it, and also no management support of its usage.

I believe that IT managers have to recognise the user "urge" to use the social software tools as part of their working environment. The best way is to get in early, to put the tools in place so that at least when a team or project wants to create content in a workspace, they are all common, held on a single knowledge base (I don't like the word repository), and can be searched with all of the others.

One of the things that I have been concentrating on from the beginning is management support. If I engage the senior management approval for wiki usage by clearly displaying and explaining the KM benefits which could be realised, then I will get that exclusive content which will help ensure improved usage and sustained engagement with the system.

Enterprise Workshop Manager - Using multiple interlinked wikis to capture knowledge

A while back I wrote a post called Organising a workshop using a wiki (Please read this earlier post for reference). The idea was to improve the overall efficiency and effectiveness of running a workshop. Now for my dissertation I am thinking about the practical implementations of this type of knowledge capture in the enterprise.

Imagine your organisation is undertaking a large business requirements gathering exercise in relation to a major implementation. It is estimated that it will take a total of 70 workshops to cover all of the streams involved.

Using my proposed method, the facilitators could reduce the number of mails required to run these workshops as all details in relation to each event is located on its own dedicated set of pages.

Using links, the outputs of Workshop 1 can be referenced on the "Background" page of Workshop 3, as these 2 workshops are related. This means that the repetition of information is reduced, and less documents are required for the preparation for individual workshops. The re-use,retention and linking of valuable knowledge is increased.

Traditionally, an individual who cannot attend a workshop does not contribute (they may send someone else in their place). This can often detract from the effectiveness depending on that individuals role or importance to the topic being explored. Now, they can contribute any suggestions, questions, concerns, or ideas to the workshop wiki before the event. This helps improve the quality of what is discussed on the day, and improves the overall effectiveness of the event.

The notes for a workshop are usually jotted on to large flip-chart sheets during the workshop. These then have to be transcribed into a word document and mailed to everyone for review (at this point the flip-chart sheets we used to record what happened in the workshop discarded). Now, we can take the notes directly onto a wiki page during the workshop, and they are immediately available to all participants afterwards. They remain there for cross reference for future use.

All of the knowledge created during the 70 workshops is now held on a single, searchable repository. Each page or set of pages can be exported as PDF documents, which can be the starting point for the drafting of Functional and Technical specifications.

The method allows for many individuals to collaborate in a new way. By allowing easy, combined input to each workshop before the event, there is a reduction in time wasted on any "Surprises" on the day. It also allows for a definition of focus by providing a forum for Q&A.

Each user would open up the Workshop Manager. They will be presented with a "Dashboard" showing them all of the workshops they are involved in. They will be directed to the homepage of any one of these by clicking on its link.

I will expand this idea more in the more posts to come, but please let me know if you have any suggestions!

The Knowledge Management puzzle!

I have been studying knowledge management for 21 months now, and as I start my dissertation, I am thinking about specific applications of knowledge management.

We have all heard KM being described as an "umbrella" term for many different applications of extracting usable knowledge from data and information.

In a lecture (Business Systems Intelligence) tonight, we heard the term:

we are drowning in data, but starving for knowledge!

Well, to help define what is contained under this umbrella, Lucas McDonnell has written a great post called 51 pieces of the knowledge management puzzle.

It is amazing to read down through the list, knowledge management really does transcend many disciplines and it's applications can vary widely. Maybe this is the problem for us KM practitioners?

Do we find it difficult to express the true meaning of knowledge management, and will this broad spectrum of disciplines work against us?

I do have one more piece to add to Lucas' fine puzzle:

52. Enterprise 2.0 - Integrating web2.0 tools into the enterprise in order to improve collaboration.

Google Docs in plain english

Another great video from the guys over at CommonCraft. This time they are showing the collaborative benefits of Google Docs.

We have all experienced difficulty when mailing multiple colleagues attaching documents. Who has what version?, who is working on what part?, how many copies are there? Which one is the right version?

They put it simply:

Instead of attaching a document to an email......attach an email address to a document.

A great application of this scenario behind the firewall would be for document review and sign-off. As a software engineer in an organisation governed by SOX, we regularly have to review Technical Spec, Functional Spec, Test Plan reviews etc. However, the situation becomes a nightmare.

Consider this timeline:

• Day 1: I mail colleagues A, B, C, & D with the document (version 1)asking them to review it and provide feedback.
• Day 2: Person A has a comment, so I update the document and re-send (version 2). Later that day, B & C mail me with comments on version 1!
• Day 3: D asks me to re-send the mail with version 2 attached as they have accidentally deleted it!

Frustrating? - Collaboration is not facilitated by simply using email with attached documents. As the video points out, why should we ever have a situation where there are 4 copies stored of the same document?